Reed and rushes dress
by Winterflower
Summary: Based on Donkeyskin. Rin, a princess is forced to run away from home, to escape from her insane father’s advances. What happens if she takes up abode in the ice prince’s castle? Pairings inside currently under construction
1. Proposal

** Reed and rushes dress**

Summary: Rin, a princess is forced to run away from home, to escape from her insane father's advances. What happens if she takes up abode in the ice prince's castle[RinSess, InuKag (AU and OOC)

Chapter 1: Proposal

"Neh, mister are you alright?" a ten year old princess with a single ponytail tied to the side of her head asked the badly injured twenty year old looking man who was propped under the willow tree in the palace garden.

He glared at her, with red tinted eyes and snarled at her angrily to get lost. She quickly backed away and left, much to his relief, when she suddenly returned and poured water from a drinking container all over him and shocking him on the spot. She then set a basketful of food and a water container on his right side within reachable distance for him.

"Here are some food and drink for you, I have to go now. I will be back tomorrow." She replied softly, before disappearing, just like she did, leaving him sitting there with a mixed look of surprise and disgust of a 'filthy and weak' human saving his life. But somehow he looked forward of seeing her again much to his chagrin. The little princess came and visited him to wash his wounds and place fresh water and food beside him, and left him alone with him wanting more for her company like one love sick puppy, causing him to be pole axed by that desire. If he wasn't badly injured, he would have bashed his head on the boulder that he was propped on, very hard. (Winter-chan: Sesshy got a puppy crush). Sometimes she would sit down besides him and talk about how her days at the palace and her father who shunned her with Sesshoumaru quietly lying next to her without giving a single input at all. But slowly and steadily it began a regular routine …

"Sesshoumaru sama, please?"

"No."

"Sesshoumaru sama, pretty please?" The princess pleaded at him very huge watering eyes at him; he wavered under her gaze before using his single hand to pinch his nose in frustration.

'Damn the creator who created the puppy eye look.'

"Yes, Rin you may." Rin beamed her sunny smile at him as she proceeded to plait his white long silky hair, causing him to sigh to the sky.

'Three more weeks to go, then I can leave this place.' Sesshomaru mentally chanted wearily, as he subconsciously relished the administrations performed by her dainty hands. Yup they subconsciously fell in love without them knowing.

Three weeks later …

"Neh, Sesshomaru sama, do you think kami sama will grant my wish?" she asked him, sitting at a corner watching him.

"Why do you ask Rin?" Sesshomaru asked with a nonchalant look on his face as he watched the clouds floating by.

"Well, I made a wish." She replied blushing at the same time. He raised his eyebrow in surprise; he waited for her to continue.

"I wished that Father will notice me, he didn't even pay attention to me ever since mama died." She informed him; Sesshomaru just stared at her blankly.

'Che, why would I care, I will be leaving anyway.' He thought to himself as he continued to stare blankly at her, and feeling a bit puzzled at this strange feeling when he heard her wish.

'But then there is also another wish, I wish that I will be with Sesshomaru sama.' She thought quietly as she leaned beside him, both of them savoring each others' warmth and presence.

Five years later …

"I wonder how is Sesshomaru sama doing now?" a fifteen year old Rin wondered as she sat right in front of the dressing parlor with her attendant combing her long silky black hair, babbling to her endlessly about the latest happenings around the palace, recalling about the event in the palace garden five years back.

"Rin sama, his majesty requests your presence in the throne room." An elderly attendant informed her. Rin briefly nodded in reply to her as she got up from her sitting position, .

'Father has finally noticed me; I wonder what I am going to say to him.' Rin thought as she hurried towards the throne room where her father was waiting.

"Ah, Rin, it's a long time since I last saw you as a child." King Yukio greeted her as he looked away from a portrait, smiling at her. Rin just nodded her head in reply unable to form a reply to him, telling him that she missed those times ever since her mother passed away.

"You look just like your mother, Mina." He replied smiling kindly at her, earning a surprised look from her.

"Do you know that before your mother died, she asked me to marry someone who possesses the same beauty as her and that I promised her before she breathed her last. For years I have been looking for that woman who is in the same league as her, but to naught." He told Rin; pausing for a while, she nodded her head, waiting for him to continue with his tale.

"Now I have found her." He informed her, smiling at the same time.

"Who is the lady going to be my mother, Father?" Rin managed to ask as the suspense is nearly killing her.

"You are the one, as you possess the same beauty as your mother, Rin." He replied, causing her to gasp in horror.

"So Rin, will you accept my offer of marriage and be my queen?" King Yukio asked her, offering her his hand. Rin slapped his hand away from her.

"No, this is not right. I refused!" Rin cried as she tried to absorb all the information. 'This is not happening, even though I wanted father to dote me, but not this way.'

"Rin, I know this is hard for you, but please consider that the kingdom is in need of a male heir, and you possess the same beauty as your mother. So I'm fulfilling both my obligations and you will also be fulfilling your duty for the country." Yukio informed her.

"No! I will not do it!" she yelled, temporarily discarding all the etiquette training that she had learnt.

Upon hearing her refusal, King Yukio's face contorted with anger.

"You ungrateful brat, do what your king commanded to!" he snarled.

"Never! You are my father and I will not marry you!" she shouted. The next thing she knew was, her father whom she was wishing to acknowledge and dote on her, beating her up like a rag doll.

"I give you a week to consider you ungrateful wrench, if you don't, then I will do by force." He shouted after he gave her a hard swift kick on the ribs, King Yukio then left the room leaving her sobbing on the ground.


	2. Dresses

Chapter 2: Dresses 

Ever since that fateful day, the castle was divided into three different groups, one group supported Rin for flat rejection of her father's mad proposal, one group felt that he is their king aka their god and she should accept his kind proposal (Winter chan: mad! --') and the other group felt that it's her fault that she had seduced her father into thinking this mad idea of marrying her. None of those who were in those two factors dared to oppose their king, as one of his faithful officers who felt that it was wrong for him to do that to his only child, voiced out his objection over this unholy union only to have his life in forfeit, causing everyone in the castle to hold their wagging tongues in fear of their heads.

Meanwhile,

"Kaori, what am I going to?" Rin cried as her trusted maid servant was gently stroking her hair. Kaori gazed sadly as she knew that at the end of the week, if Rin did not give a reply that their king wants, she gave a shiver as she tried not to think of the consequences, as he was the king who get what he wanted. She also knew that the advice that she would give to her princess was enough to kill her, even though it might gave her a chance to escape, she was also aware of the times when her princess just disappeared from the castle five years back and had decided not to press further, after seeing the happy look on her face when she came back from the garden.

"Rin hime, there's only way, you have to 'agree' with it." She replied grimacing, she felt a sour feeling as the words came out of her mouth.

Rin was about to reply to her advice in horror when she took note of the look of her servant's face. Rin was close to her servants so she could tell what they were feeling at the moment, just looking at their body language.

"Fine then, he can marry me if he can find six dresses for me, one that is as white as snow, second that has the color of the night, the third has the color of the evening sky, the forth has the color of the moon, the fifth has the color of the sun and the last of all is the one that is made of nothing except reeds and rushes and he can take his time for all I care!" Rin informed her servant, the servant bowed quietly, glad that Rin had taken a hint to at least buy some time. Kaori then left the room to deliver the message to her lord, Rin then sat on chair, thinking that her father would change his mind and give up after hearing this weird request from her, apparently she was underestimating her father over it. While Rin was requesting for the color for her dresses she was thinking of the time when she met Sesshoumaru.

"Sesshoumaru sama please come back to me." She whispered as tears trickled down her face.

A few weeks later …

"Rin hime, this is not good." Kaori whispered to her with a distraught tone in her voice. Even though she had somehow hid some food rations for her mistress in case of emergencies, she still felt the dread of the situation.

"What is it Kaori?" Rin asked feeling the same.

"Yoshi sama wants to see you in the throne room, Rin hime." Kaori whispered to her. Rin quickly run to the appointed place and to her horror, there at the throne room was a smirking King Yoshi and besides him were the said dresses displayed right before her very own eyes.

"So my sweet, get ready because we are going to get married one month hence." The king gloated right at her pale stricken face.

t.b.c

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Winter: I like to thank those who read and review this fic. Hope you all like this current chpt for rnrd story. coming up next: escape for love and freedom. 


	3. Escape for freedom and love

Chapter 3: Escape for freedom and love 

An enraged Rin hurled daggers towards a doll placed on her desk that strangely resembled her father. While her old man went on a quest searching for a suitable replacement for his late wife, she was secretly trained in the art of war by one of her father's generals, Bankotsu. The reason she did that was her hope of escaping that drastic marriage with him; but now the hope was gone with the wind. She found out that in order for her father to get those dresses, he had forced his people under the pain of death to create those beautiful dresses and the reed dress. Bankotsu who was charged for overseeing the task, had objected to it and the unholy matrimony very loudly and had lost his life to the guillotine. Bankotsu's replacement was so scared that he immediately oversaw the whole operation, causing many countless and unnecessary deaths.

"Damn it, why can't my father understand that I don't want to marry him?" Rin raged as she finished mutilating the soft toy before her. She could have ruined her room, but it wasn't even worth her time and effort to do that. She had more urgent matters to settle, namely changing her garb to peasant clothes and getting some gold for traveling expenses and such. She hastily changed her garb and packed the filched gold in a small pouch and smeared herself with dirt. Just then, Kaori and a feminine looking man entered her room, carrying a big bag and the reed and rushes dress to look exactly like a peasant woman.

For the past month while the castle was bustling with activity in the preparations for the upcoming nuptials; Rin had managed to get her loyal supporters to refresh her memory on the finer course of housekeeping and cooking. With that in mind, now she made her preparations to flee.

"Rin hime, I have altered the reed and rushes dress with the rushes that I managed to gather from the palace ponds, including smearing chicken's blood on one of your favorite kimonos … Jakotsu decided that he wants to play bride." Kaori informed her as she showed Rin the alterations on the dress that included a hood and long sleeves. Apparently she had a hard time walking to her chambers without gaining people's attention.

"But I can't let Jakotsu san take the rap from me. You know my father; he will kill anyone without a second thought." Rin replied, shuddering at the memory where her own father had practically beat her to almost an inch of her life. She could have defended herself but she was too stunned with the pain and the proposal to even fight back.

"Yosha! Rin chan, don't worry, I'm taking your place so that we can buy some time for you to run far away from here while I mess around with the old fart." Jakotsu replied very cheerfully, which made the princess and her maid wonder about his denseness over the seriousness of the situation.

"Jakotsu, are you sure? You really don't have to do it; I could just slip out of the castle with no one watching." Rin replied very nervously and Kaori nodded in agreement.

"Now, Rin chan, I appreciate your intentions, but I'm doing it for Bankotsu." Jakotsu replied becoming very serious.

Both of them gazed at him with sadness and concern, as he was not the only one feeling that way since the minister who lost his life to the gallows was one of Kaori's older brothers. They knew that both Jakotsu and Bankotsu were like brothers, doing everything together, and his death had hit Jakotsu very badly.

"Jakotsu …" Rin was about to comfort him but was cut off by him.

"Saa, let's get the show running as I need attendants to dress me up." Jakotsu spoke, clapping his hands cheerfully, ushering the two to the dressing rooms so that he could don the wedding kimono with assistance, and at the same time for Rin to don the reed and rushes dress.

A few hours later …

"Good luck, Rin chan and make sure that you get yourself far away from this place while I scare the shit out from your old man." Jakotsu grinned as he placed the wedding veil over his face.

"Sure, thanks a lot for helping me, Jakotsu san, Kaori san. I'm really sorry for causing Bankotsu san and Kaori's brother's death." Rin whispered as she pulled the reed woven hood over her head, low over her brows, covering her face at the same time.

"Just hurry up and run away from this hellhole as fast as you can." Kaori replied as she gently shoved her mistress out of the castle, smiling sadly at the same time.

"Yes and goodbye everyone." With that she quietly slipped out of the castle, carrying the bag that held the gold, the dresses and food supplies.

"So this is it, I hope Rin finds her happiness." Kaori spoke up as they gazed at the retreating shadow.

"Nah, don't worry, she will be alright. So could you lead the way to the chamber where the wedding ceremony will be held?" Jakotsu asked very innocently with a mischievous grin that was betraying his face.

"Sure, let's make it a living nightmare for him." Kaori grinned as she led the way for him.

Meanwhile Rin fled the palace like the wind as she headed in the direction to the western region where a dog demon lord ruled the area. She hoped that would be enough to enable her to lie low and to prevent her father from finding her. As the saying goes: 'the most dangerous place is the safest place to hide in.' As she was running, she came across a stream, where she laid the said kimono into the water, watching it floatby to its intended place, before she headed once more towards the western border.

She continued on, only to stop to rest during the day and travel at night. Even though she was raised in the palace and did not face that many hardships, she had to ration her food supply so that she could avoid the villages unless she needed to go there for restocking her food and other feminine necessities for fear of her father finding her there. After many weeks of wandering towards the west region, she entered a forest, being tired and hungry; she crawled towards a tree and curled up inside the hollow of it and slept like a log. Unknown to her, the forest and the land that she had entered belonged to someone whom she knew.

The next day …

"Oei, Sesshomaru, do we always have to do this?" the silver haired teenager with two dog ears on his head complained as they wandered around the area.

"Baka hanyou! You need to patrol these lands to prevent any enemies from entering; you are practically wasting time while Sesshoumaru sama has better things to do." The little green man chided at the hanyou.

"What do you expect me to do Jaken? All I see are trees!" The hanyou snapped back irritably as he bonked Jaken hard on the head and started a verbal war between them.

Sesshoumaru sighed as he felt an incoming headache upon hearing the bickering between the two and punching that was performed by the former. Somehow he preferred Rin's company to them, as he felt another headache crashing on him again as they used very interesting and creative insults upon each other.

Ever since he left Rin after his wounds were healed, he had reconciled with his hanyou brother, Inuyasha and took him in and had taught him the ropes of ruling the country like his deceased father, Inu no Taishou had wanted. But it had been more of a challenge teaching him the rules and etiquettes as Inuyasha seemed to be practically breaking every rule in the household, causing him to have countless of headaches, even though he was impressed as he was the one who took off his arm and able to survive on his own when Inuyasha's mother passed away when he was a pup. He wanted to return back to the castle where Rin lived, but he had standing issues he had to attend to such as dissolving feudal issues between his vessels and teaching his incompetent stepbrother the tricks of the trade.

The last he heard of her was that she was engaged and married. He felt a tinge of regret that he had not come sooner than he had intended.

The two's persistent bickering wrenched him from his musings and caused his very thin nerves to shatter into pieces. He was about to bonk Inuyasha's head and kick Jaken to who knows where when he smelled something.

'That's weird; not many humans passed this land.' He thought as he headed towards the direction where the smell was, finding it very familiar but couldn't place where, leaving his bickering companions behind. When they noticed his departure, they hurried after him with Jaken calling after him to wait up and blaming Inuyasha at the same time. They followed the scent and found the tree that could only permit only one person in, so Sesshoumaru entered the tree despite Jaken's protest and found the sleeping girl covered with nothing but reeds and rushes. He wanted to have a closer look but her hood obstructed his view of her face. He prodded her to awaken and proceeded to stare at her. Rin woke up feeling groggy as she looked around her surroundings to locate who woke her up.

'Sesshoumaru sama …' she thought as her eyes widened in surprise at seeing who had awakened her, standing right before her...

T.B.C

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Winter flower: sorry for the previous lousy chapter, and would like to thank my editor for editing this chapter: sugarsweetpie for taking time to edit this 2 times, I hope you are reading this and laughing over it. A big thanks to those who read and reviewed this chapter: 

Pwalefriend: i hope you like this chapter especially jakotsu is screwing the old fart king now. well it's a real fairy tale, you can try reading grimm tales and you can find the story, basically there are many versions to this fairy tale: deerskin. but the theme remains the same where the king, 'father' lusted after the daughter and demanded a hand in marriage with her. That time when i wrote about the king part, i was practically puking away.

Hope you all like this chapter and take some time to review this chapter. See ya all at the next chapter ja ne. Next chapter: unknown for the moment.


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